Super Smash Bros. review by Tyson
Overall
Pass
Well it’s time for another Smash Bros. game. The Smash Bros. series has been one of the few Nintendo franchises that has never hooked me as their other franchises. Many problems that I have with the Smash Bros. franchise still persist game after game and I just can’t get a lot of enjoyment out of the series.
Gameplay
Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U should be a fighting game that I would enjoy yet I can’t stop finding faults with the game. My main gripe with the game is that the combat system doesn’t feel balanced at all. Some characters have way to much power or range while other characters are just too weak. Even the Final Smash moves feel way unbalanced to me as well. Many Final Smash moves will fill the screen with damaging attacks while others do almost nothing.
Other problems I have with the game is the camera and the stages. Many times throughout the game the camera will zoom way out and it can make it hard for me to see my character. Also I find it hard to see my character when so much crap can go on at any given time. These issue cause me time after time to get killed or fall into a bottomless pit. The sad part is that these are only issues I have with the Smash Bros. series. Other fighting games never give me these problems. My problem about the stages is that I don’t find many of them fun to fight on. I don’t enjoy forced scrolling, various environment dangers, or moving platforms in my fighting games. Stages like the Donkey Kong 75m stage can go die in a fire.
The only reason I have even played the Smash Bros. games has been the character roster. This is the only game where you can play as someone like Zelda, or Gannon, or someone strange like R.O.B. Smash Bros. is also the only Nintendo game that you will ever get to see Princess Peach butt slam Mario into the atmosphere and that has some kind of crazy appeal for me. Sadly I do feel that they messed up a bit with the roster on this addition. Why is Sonic in another Smash Bros. game but other popular Sonic characters like Tails or Knuckles absent? Also why is Bayonetta not in this game? With Nintendo getting an exclusive deal with Bayonetta 2 it makes me wonder why she isn’t included. Bayonetta’s crazy move set seems like it would fit perfectly with this game.
I do also want to give the game some props with the different gameplay modes that it offers. You get your standard Smash mode, a 8 player Smash Mode, Online play, and different type of Event modes. I do wish that some sort of story mode could of been included in the game instead of just more event based fight modes.
Control
Despite my issues with many core gameplay the problems at least the games control seems to be designed well. Controlling the game is easy and you can pull off special moves easily by doing a direction plus a button press. Like many of Nintendos other games you can use different controllers to play the game.
Graphics
Nintendo is one company that knows how to make great looking games and Smash Bros for the Wii U is no exception. The character models look fantastic, the game runs at a smooth framerate, and it is very colorful which is fantastic.
Sound
The audio and sound effects, much like the graphics, are fantastic. The iconic anouncer voice is great. The various character voices are well done and the background music throughout the game is also fantastic. I liked how there was an option for you to listen to various background music tracks or character voices in the game.